To the person that asked about "trailmix", I'm not certain but my best guess would be a pitch correction software. It could also be a few other things that would help remove unwanted noise & make the sound of the music thrive. But I can assure you its definitely NOT the snackfood!

Yes, the X-Factor is alive and thriving in this show. It's so great to hear first-ever versions played so well out-of-the-gate, Estimated and Terrapin. I wonder why this show has never been released commercially by now. The performance quality certainly qualifies it- -could be due to the lyric misses in Franklin's Tower.
You won't find a more aggressive "Around & Around" anywhere. One of those rockers where you think Bobby's going to blow the roof off the joint, and ruin his vocal chords for good. Many Thanks to Betty C. for all the great board recordings in the 70s. And thanks to Tim and friends for the fine-tuning and upload!

I hitchhiked about thirty miles from Arrowbear to see this show. It was so nice to be able to just walk up to the stage and cruise around where I wanted. I was thrilled to be able to see the guys (and girl) live. On my ride hitchhiking back, the driver got out of the car to help someone and the car started rolling backward down the highway. I leapt from the back seat and hit the brake pedal with my hand. A fun and exciting day all around. Scott

5 out of 5, Jerry flubs a few words but over all the best version of Sugaree, by far. Betty Board mix and she has everyone being heard. The best part of this song is during the lyrics when Bob hits a note every 5 seconds or so. Jerry's extra hard and fast strumming is also killer. Listen to the drummers hitting the symbols and Keith's piano adds a lot to this song. I know it's the first Terrapin Station show but Sugaree takes the cake.

One to remember and the band was ablaze with energy. We were close to the stage and ablaze as well, Deadheads and Hells Angles going off and shaking bones ! Just so fun to relive it. Thanks to all who have made this real for so many others to enjoy. Can't wait to delve into more. One thing I remember about this show is at the end of reeling and rocking, to call the boys and Donna out for an encore. One of the Angles grabbed a mic and Started a chant of THE GRATEFUL DEAD OWN THIS TOWN !! (and they did this night) I think they needed the extra incentive, that was a hell of an exhaustive set!! Long live the legacy.

I like your review. I think the aliens wouldnt destroy Earth after hearing what some earthlings produced.
Monksbird may have saved the planet with his quick thinking!!!
great job

Just incredible show. A Great start to one of the greatest years in GD history. A must have. The grove of this show is amazing. Has those great sounds of 73-74 plus the new sounds of the late 70's. This is one of those nights where they just click and take everything to another level. Its why we listen.

Great show, and recording, but ah, what exactly is "Trailmix"?

I know of the snacky food you can buy at the store, but if this recording is a matrix, there is no mention of the other source. Unless I am missing something.....

Just when I've been grooving on '73 and '74, this comes along...sheesh, what a great show. I think if the aliens came and asked me what this "Rock and Roll" thing was all about, this might very well be the tape I press into their weird little sucker hands.

2 much 2 good enjoy all your favorites........
like a kid in the candy shop, sugar on snow !!!!
help>slip>frank>Music on and on...................
4 me this is the "breakpoint" 4 the DEAD , this being the 1ST terripin, estimated and 1 other,
sorta pre 2/26/77 and post 2/26/77
a good place to "cut the deck" if one could do so.
between 66-96
1 of the finest matrixes everenjoy my bookmarks
ms42466

I happen to be at the swing for Lynyrd Sykynrds last road trip before the crash , I had to think real hard to remember what went on that night , all i rememmber was everyone with their JD bottles partying hard , that was fun , but I recall that airport now and drinking out there , that place was a trip , wish I would have been at this dead concert , I didnt really get turned on to the dead until a few years later , its weird I knew the songs but as a kid in the 70s I preferred more metal at the time , but oh my god once I became a dead head its been a lifetime of amazing experiences and today as I search through the internet here , and you tube and all these sites , I got the sirius channel , its like a rebirth , I downloaded to best of my knowledge all the shows I saw , was a regular here in southern california from like 81 to 88 especially
looking back I wish I would have seen them earlier on and didnt stop going to the concerts , i loved it , but started a family bla bla bla ...
lol , long live the grateful dead , the real greatest rock n roll band , or whatever band they were !! gonna see Bobby and Phil with furthur in santa barbara next month , pretty excited for that
peace everyone , I love reading the reviews and stuff fellow dead heads say , the best man ...

I'm completely blown away by this. This is the best Playin' I've ever heard. They never lose focus, they always listen to one another, and everyone plays an innovative part. Sometimes, I feel like during Playin' they kind of fall asleep at the wheel. Here, when The Wheel comes up, they certainly aren't asleep. This is the standout for me at this show. Phil's bass solo is a great segue into Dancin'. The playing is tight and crisp all the way through. This compliments 5-8-77 nicely.

Ever since I started collecting shows, I have seen 2/26/77 on every "best tapes" list I came across. Before listening to this show, I had heard all of the great '77 era shows, including every Betty Board and AUD for the month of May. 1977 is one of my favorite years for a number of reasons. After listening to the entire May '77 run, I have often wondered how a show like 2/26 could still be so prominent on '77 go-to lists when there was so much to chose from in May, October, November, or December. In my opinion, the first shows of a new tour (throughout the Dead's career) tended to be good, but I never really felt they were as smooth and inventive as shows played two or three months down the road. For example, the first show of the '73 tour, 2/9/73 Roscoe Maples Pavilion, is a favorite "best show" according to a lot of people, but I would pick any show from the month of June over it.

So I approached 2/26/77 with this same attitude...and boy was my paradigm proven wrong. This show is every bit as magnificent as Barton Hall. The sound quality is quite good, but the band is just playing completely together during the whole show. Jerry's solos are well formed and come straight from his heart. Truly amazing Help>Slip>Franklins, that's for sure.

There is nothing like a Grateful Dead concert, and there is nothing like a '77 show. The booming punch of Phil's flat-picked Alembic bass; the bright metallic sound of Jerry's aluminum-necked Travis Bean guitar and Fender Twin Reverb amp; Keith's beautifully constructed piano phrasing; Bobby's thin rhythm chime; and the hypnotically in-sync Mickey and Billy make '77 my favorite year. Thanks for capturing this moment of greatness Betty.

What can you say about the most amazing Grateful Dead Concert ever! Standing 25 -30 rows back on the main floor we were pushed by the crush of the crowd all the way to the front row when the boys came on stage. Then after Terrapin Station I heard some rookie standing next to me say to his friend, "What happened? Is the show over already?"

what a treat... it is worth checking out, specially the solo's in by jer&phil



beautiful betty board (BBB)

crisp crisp...its hard to believe that i went to my first show a little over ten years after this show was played. seems like yesterday. this sounds soooooo good. i am grateful 4.9773 stars

Great mix, Great recording, Keith is really slamming on his keys tonight. The end of the 1st set is amazing as well as the whole show. Too young to ever have seen the dead, So this review is based off ears only, not experience. This is one of the best!

This was one of the first shows a good friend of mine from Iowa City whom studied at U of I gave me in my early years of Dead appreciation ( 1993 I was 18 ] . Thanks Barry .

The entire show is a gem

My 1st three tapes as a beginning head were Park City UT Aug 20 , 1987 . Richfield OH March 14 , 1993 & March 11 , 1993 Rosemont IL

Months later I was given this , Kezar 73 and a couple other things . Thanks again Barry for giving me some prime Dead as a beginner in those years

Jaime G

I saw concerts at the Swing during my High School years. Black Sabbath,Johnny Winter,Blue Oyster Cult,ELP.etc. My cousin saw Jimi Hendrix there and The Beatles in Las Vegas. Anyway I sat way up in the balcony where my only concern was drinking Southern Comfort and rolling joints. It wasn't until after the show that I realized something special had been afoot onstage. The tapers and few remaing Deadheads gave me the clue. I found a button on the floor as a token.

Jerry teases St. Stephen at the end of Promised Land before gliding into Eyes. Great show, great transfer.

Also, this is the only time I ever saw Phil do a distinct bass solo; during "Eyes of the World", of course. Those of you who saw them in '73-'74 may have, but after this, he pretty much stopped that. This is my third show, and believe it or not I actually think this was the weakest of my amazing first four, i.e. that's how great the other three were in my opinion! The best of these I think was the fourth one, namely at The Forum 1977/6/4 i.e. just prior to the more well known Winterland shows in June. The other two being the second of each of following the pairs: with "The Who" at Oakland Stadium 1976/10/10 and at L.A.'s Shrine Auditorium 1976/10/15!
The Swing was a strangely built building for a concert! (By the way it no longer exists because apparently a plane crashed into it after E.L.P., being the last band to play there shortly after Grateful Dead played there in Dec. '80; (which was also a great show, and the only one I ever passed out at, but that's another story)! (What the hell does E.L.P. have to do with it, nothing other than the coincidence which I explain below). The following if you'll bare with me, is some historical context of this show and as you know, it started a new era for the band, in addition to simply the new compositions that is, also new devices facilitating the new compositions etc.
Starting with what is simply weird about the Swing but of lesser significance, since it's only noticeably on the audience tape; I got from a fellow who recorded from "a" balcony. Why I saw "a" balcony is because, there were only balconies on either side, yet not in the back like most rectangular buildings, such as, for example, Winterland or the Oakland Aud. (Kiaser). Those had their long axis running to and from the stage.
The Swing on the other hand, was at a 90 degree angle to more common configuration, i.e. it's width was much longer than it's length from the stage towards the audience. Hence, the audience tape I had before the "Betty Board" came out, sounded very lopsided! Despite this, it had an uncut "Franklin's Tower" unlike the first board I got! However, unfortunately the fellow from whom I got my first board copy, was unwilling to let me do the dub it myself, yet he didn't pay enough attention to the contents of recordings were prior to copying it. So consequentially, I lost the intact audience "Franklin's Tower" having been recorded over with the board which was cut in "Franklin's Tower". So, I was relieved that it's been patched here!
What's more significant but not readily apparent, is the mention of "technical difficulties" by Bob Weir early in the first set; (not that equipment delays were very unusual but this one was unique). That is, here Steve Parish was rigging Garcia into a Moog synthesizer which Keith played ever so briefly!
One gets the distinct impression that Keith apparently disliked electric keyboards. This is understandable given how primitive synthesizers were at this early time! Moreover Billy K. was interviewed in B.A.M. magazine around the time of Brent's first show, stating there was room for improvement in the technology which came since obviously they used them extensively later on. How much did this have to do or not with Keith's eventual exit from the band? I did hear something when Brent came in the band, that they were looking for "more sustain", as can be produced with electric keyboards.
Other evidence for this is a show a Texas later this same year, but I wasn't in attendance so I can't say for sure yet Keith seems to have left the stage after very briefly playing an "electric" during the beginning of "Playin' in the Band"? (Perhaps it's not appropriate to characterize Keith in this way since at least the following year he played for example, at the outdoor show at my alma mater when I was a freshman, at U.C. Santa Barbara, an electric "Fender Rhodes" piano), as well as an organ on a few tunes during his first rehearsals in '71.
So, back to Garcia, who just started using the "Unity Gain" effects loop into his volume knob on his guitar five months prior to this, at the show the day before my first show (i.e. the 1st one with "The Who" at Oakland Stadium" 1976/10/9). Here at the Swing was the first use of the new "Mutron" envelope filter, (synthesizer-like device), which still at this early time apparently had to be piped through a Moog synthesizer, configured as such for this debut of "Estimated Prophet" yet it was odd to see Jerry plugged into Keith!
Now, I'm not saying Dead Heads in general feel as my personal friends at the time did who weren't too enthused by bands such as E.L.P. which among others used synthesizers extensively, however I was more open minded. I remember pointing out to my friend as Steve Parish was plugging Jerry into the Moog since we were up in the front of this $7.50 general admission concert.
The state of the art at the time was that synthesizers could only play a single note at a time i.e. monophonic, and only Keith Emerson at the time had a keyboard capable of polphony until later. Another coincidence, is that the only other famous professional guitarist that I ever saw play live using a "Travis Bean" guitar besides Jerry Garcia was Greg Lake, (Jerry's had a sticker on it saying "The enemy is listening"); not that that has anything to do with it but it is still true!
Some of you may remember around '89ish when briefly, (which I only saw once at The Forum in Inglewood, Ca.), Parish bring out a gray Stratocaster with a big box, (Roland Synthesizer?), attached to the bridge for Jerry to noodle on during the "Improvisation" section; (I refuse to call it "Space", since there is no air in outer space, hence no sound). I knew folks who felt this is one of the best early renditions of "Slipknot!" I myself am kind of bias, since it was the only one I saw before they brought it back out at Tempe, Ariz. in '83!

Augy
San Diego

The second set was a gateway to the universal mind,one of the most epic sets right in-between Blues of Allah and Terrapin station some awesome jams and Eyes just takes you places and slipknot is like a depiction of the knowledge of the elders, its just blazin

This is defiantly one i wish i was alive for